How To Draw A Dog Face

Draw the dog’s eyes. Remember to make the eyes as glossy as possible by drawing squiggly lines within his pupils.

Use soft strokes where fur is short and harder strokes where it’s long. You can use the eraser to work back over white fur to brighten it and create a softer look.

Draw some ears. They can be floppy, pointy, however you want them!

Begin by adding a bit of rough shading to indicate the shadows. In this example, the light is coming from top-left, making the lower right side slightly darker. There are also shadows under the dog’s ears.

Throughout time, the family dog has been a symbol of steadfast loyalty and unconditional love. But capturing that essence on paper can be a little tricky. You can write about it, but a dog’s face is so expressive that sometimes the only way to avoid using 1,000 words is to draw a picture. This article will show you how!

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The bow is just an optional stylistic choice made by the artist for this article. If you don’t want your dog to have a bow, don’t draw one.

Begin by choosing a suitable reference photo to work from. It doesn’t really matter what the photo is like as long as your dog’s face is clearly visible.

Once you’ve gathered your materials, find a comfortable, well-lit place to work. Then you can get started.

Remember that this is a sketch, not a photorealist drawing. You want to keep the drawing fresh and energetic, so don’t get too obsessed with tiny details.

Next, use your pencil to add more subtle detail. Use a light touch because it’s easier to add more shadow than it is to erase it when you go too dark. Work from dark to light across the entire surface of the drawing, gradually building up the texture.

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Next, sketch your dog’s eyes, making sure the pupils are lined up. Then add the nose and ears. As you draw, note where there are changes of plane near the eyes.

You don’t need to be a skilled artist in order to draw a picture of your dog. All you need is a photo of your four-legged friend and a few basic drawing supplies. This simple lesson will show you how to draw a dog in just a few steps.

Draw a circular shape and two floppy ears. Add also a vertical and horizontal line on the circular shape to serve as your guidelines. Make sure to use them as they will really help.

Draw the dog’s nose. Draw an upside down heart and a triangular shape with two cutout holes.

Use the eraser to work back into darker areas to soften marks as needed to enhance dimensionality.

Remember, the more you observe the small changes of fur tone and texture, the finer the hair will look. The amount of final detail you choose to add will depend on how much time you want to devote to the sketch.

Look up pictures of the breed of your choice, and copy its facial details.

Make a small stick figure in the center of your drawing area. Add small legs but no arms.

You will also need some sketch paper, a drawing pencil, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener.

Draw his paws with a series of four rounded triangular shapes on the left and to the right side of his face.

Add some faint lines near the eyes, forehead, and neck to suggest folds of skin and ruffles of fur. These marks should be gestural; don’t spend too much time thinking about where to place them or whether to add shading. The trick is to look, think, and set the lines down with confidence.

Check that the angle matches your source photo. Notice that there’s a slight outward curve in the line through the dog’s eyes; they aren’t completely forward on the head.

Why is there a bow on the dog? What if I don’t want the bow on it?

With the basic lines of your dog’s face blocked in, you can sketch the head in more detail. Use a light touch as you draw; these guidelines should be faint so they can be erased later in the process.

Outline your drawing. Use a black pen or marker to ink over your penciled sketch. After outlining your drawing, clean it up by erasing your penciled sketch and guidelines.

There are some stories that can be used to remember how to draw the second dog’s face: There was a man (stick figure) had six children (three on each side). They would go to a park to play (circle). They had two rooms facing the park (eyes with the pupils).

To travel from their home to the park they would walk a short distance (semi circle). There was a river on both sides (ears). There was a man who had no arms (stick figure) and because he had no arms he cried and cried (dots around man).

To cheer himself up he went to the fair and went on a Ferris wheel (circle), two haunted houses (eyes), and got two cotton candies (pupils). Then he went over a hill (top of head), went to a hot dog stand, and got two hot dogs (ears).

There once was a man (stick figure) who had bees chasing him (dots), so he jumped into a lake (circle). When he got out, he saw two caves (eyes and pupils) in the side of a hill (semi-circle) with two waterfalls coming off the side of the cave (ears).

There was a man with no arms (nose) who fell in a pond (muzzle). It started to rain (whiskers). He ran up a hill (top of head) and went to McDonald’s (eyes) and he ordered two burgers (pupils) and fries (ears).

Then he was happy (tongue). There was once a man with no arms (nose) bees were chasing him (dots) so he hid in a cave (circle). He died, so he was buried at a graveyard (eyes). There were a holes in the gravestones (pupils) so all of the man’s family were there (semi-circle), and they were crying (ears).

There was a man with no arms (Stick figure nose). He died, and was buried, (muzzle), then some flies came (dots). They gave the man 2 graves and colored in a rainbow on the bottoms of both (eyes w/ pupils).

Then A BIG rainbow came (semi circle). And finally some cars came to visit the grave (ears). There once was a man with no arms. He was really gross so he had flies all around him (dots). One day he went up a hill (muzzle) and he went up another (top of head).

There were two pools at the top (eyes with pupils). There were also slides there. He slid down one side (ear) and the down another (other ear). One time there was a man(stick figure) who was very clumsy so he cried a lot(dots).

Once, he cried so much, he made a lake(circle)! So then his dog and cat died so he put up grave stones(eyes),but the words were all squished together(pupils). He went up a hill,(semi-circle) and went down slides! There was a man (Nose and mouth), who had 6 children (dots).

They all drowned (muzzle). The two oldest ones got a nice grave (eyes), while the younger 4 got 2 small graves to squeeze into (pupils). The father got a big grave watching over them all (Semi circle).

At the funeral, many tears were shed (ears). There was a man (Nose/Mouth) who had 6 children (dots) so he bought a pool (face), the pool sprung a leak (tongue) so they moved to the mountains higher and higher, (each eye) and even higher (face)when rocks fell (ears) they moved inside the caves (pupils)!

Next, sketch the curve at the tip of the nose, the mouth, and chin. Pay attention to the spot where the plane changes here as well.

You can use a live dog as a model, or you can search for an image online and draw based on that template.

Create two half circles attached to the top of the main circle. These should be almost touching each other but not quite. They will be the eyes.

You have the basic structure and the outline, now it’s time to fill in some details. This is the stage where your dog’s portrait really starts to get form and personality.

Now that you’ve outlined the shadows and highlights of your dog’s face, you can begin to focus on the details. Begin by gently erasing the guidelines you created.

Draw a circle around the stick figure. Make sure none of the stick’s body parts or dots touch the circle.

Draw a semi-circle around the eyes. This will be the rest of the face.

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On a blank sheet of paper, begin by sketching a reference line to indicate the center of your dog’s face. This is called “blocking in” the features and is the first step in any drawing. Make sure the reference line runs between the ears and eyes and through the middle of your dog’s nose.

You don’t want to shade everything in the drawing. Instead, “reserve” or leave some parts of the paper unshaded to suggest highlights in the eyes, nose, and fur. Work from dark to light as you shade, adding strokes in layers to create texture.

Sketch a curved line where the back of the muzzle meets the head and two lines down the face to give the muzzle some dimension. You can add hints of fur by adding a few loose lines along the shoulders and neck.

Now that you’ve blocked in the basic shape, you should be able to keep the features lined up as you draw.

It’s time to finish your drawing. Use your eraser to soften any marks that are too dark or intense. Then, use your pencil to finish the fur with even, hatched shading, particularly on the shadowed side of the face. Use coarse marks for long fur and fine marks for short fur.

Color him with colors such as gray, dark gray, black or brown.

Draw small details such as the little circles on his nose and then lines for his eyelids and ears.

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